There are times when we all wonder whether we are in the right place, whether what we have worked for all our lives has really been worth it, or whether things have changed so much that what we knew, what we cared for, has vanished forever and remains just a memory. There are many reasons for not going back to a favorite place: mainly the times have changed, and what we knew then is no more but, more than that, we see what was as what is now, with different eyes, and discover things which change our memories, which can make us question our existence and all that we have worked for down the years.

Jack Reacher goes back to his former unit, the 110th Military Police, for one simple reason, he liked the voice of the new Commanding Officer. This is, perhaps, not quite so strange as it may seem at first glance, we are all subject to sudden whims, fantasies, the draw of something pleasant. A voice can build a beautiful picture in our minds, which does not necessarily have anything to do with the reality, but it can inspire, and Jack Reacher lets this voice inspire him to travel back to Virginia. What he finds when he gets there is another matter entirely. His old unit is not what it was, something has happened and it is not a good something. He finds a new Commanding Officer there, and finds himself drafted back into the Army, into his old unit, many years after he left it for good. Worse still, Major Susan Turner, the beautifully inspiring voice, is not there.

What follows is a mixture of good detective work and plain excitement. Forced to stay by his new duties, although they cannot be more limited than they are, Reacher begins asking awkward questions, seeking out the real reason Turner has been incarcerated, trying to find out who has usurped the good name of his old unit, and what they are using the power of the United States Army for. Naturally he also breaks all the rules, takes matters into his own hands, collects a few bruises along the way, and fights against a system which shouldn’t exist. A good, exciting read from start to finish, Lee Child keeps his hero working against the odds, and his readers enthralled from one page to the next.